A quick, useful, and FREE branding hack you can do in 2 hours
A couple weeks ago I had my buddy who is a great photographer/videographer help me out by doing a photo/video shoot for PostPilot.
I wanted to get some shots for the website and social pages but I also have another interesting idea.
What about branded GIFs?
We had ordered PostPilot t-shirts the week before and wanted to utilize them/show them off in a more unique way. So we recorded 3-4 second reaction videos with somebody in the PostPilot t-shirt.
We then used the GIPHY Capture tool for Mac (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/giphy-capture-the-gif-maker/id668208984?mt=12) to turn those reaction videos into branded GIFs.
** The GIPHY Capture tool makes it SUPER easy to capture and edit gifs. You can even add meme text using the tool and then download the gif in HD.
We then uploaded them all to GIPHY.com under a new branded PostPilot account. We use them on our social pages and blog posts as a great and fun way to get an idea across while still slipping in some branding.
You can check out PostPilot's branded GIFs here...
https://giphy.com/channel/postpilot
The entire thing probably took 2 hours tops
- 30 minutes to record all the different reactions
- 1.5 hours to turn them into gifs and upload them to GIPHY.com
And now we have branded GIFs for various marketing purposes.
This is something that extremely easy and FREE for any other brand to do. You can capture 4K reaction videos using your iPhone. Edit them into gifs using the tool above, and then upload to GIPHY to host them.
Boom.
You've got fun, useful, and branded content you can use everywhere online.
Let me know if you do the same. I'd love to check them out!
Should turn this into a service. I'll send the tee-shirt you create the Gifs for me :)
I like it! If you're serious, shoot me an email :)
great idea and they look great too. have you used any in your campaigns yet?
Thanks! Yes, we've been using them in our blog, Twitter, and emails. :)
That's a great idea!
Thanks for sharing :)
Much appreciated!
If I could upvote more than once, I would. Great idea, great execution.
Haha thanks, Michal. Try it out yourself too!
Great idea!
Thanks!!
Great Idea!! got to check this out
Thanks, Swagata! Let me know if you make your own!
Great tool, interesting idea!
If the process of creating GIFs can be automated, it could be a great service.
Thanks Jake. A couple other people have mentioned the same thing so it's got me thinking about that. What do you think is a fair price for your own branded gifs?
Hard to define a fair price, because it depends on how the service will look like. For example, one-time use on the tool only, or more services on the best practices and promotion channels etc., the price can vary significantly.
Great idea, love it!
Appreciate the kind words, Scott!
Hey, All! You're invited...
All your positive feedback inspired me to spin this idea into a product that other people can take advantage of. I'm calling it BrandGifs (www.BrandGifs.com).
I'm still putting the polish on everything but since you were all somebody who found this idea interesting from the start I wanted to get all of your feedback at this stage in the process.
If you have a couple minutes to check out BrandGifs.com and let me know your thoughts on the landing page and product, I'd be forever grateful! 🙏 ♥️ (Obviously you don't have to buy them, but feedback on the process of requesting/purchasing your BrandGifs is appreciated)
In fact, I'm going to give everybody who provides their full feedback to this thread 5 free BrandGifs of their own. 🎁🎁
Thanks in advance and stay awesome!
@SCLandon @FBNKCMaster @mkarnicki @rlfrahm @swagskim @jkwang @jroutens @BoomShiva619 @ryanbilodeau @simplehack @wpexpert @mygo @Madamdo @ShareGrams @matthew @antcas
Good to see you went through with it :)
I actually have a use for it. How high res are the gifs? Can we give you a specific color code for the background? And any discounts available? 😅
This is pretty awesome @DavePoly, glad that you brought it into existence!
Love the page overall, just couple of points of feedback:
@BoomShiva619 Thank you so much for the love and feedback!
You rock!
Hello @DavePoly, first of all, congratulations! I like your landing page but please add a SSL certificate so Google don't kill you SEO. ;) I am not a big fan of your pricing table, the colours are confusing and also, you have too many colours on the background. I will stick with one or two related to your branding. The rest looks good, the message is clear on what you are offering (but I am biased because I already know what you have done...). Need to finalize this FAQ too... Good luck!
Much appreciated on the feedback, @wpexpert! Besides the colors around the pricing, what do you think of the prices of the packages themselves? Fair? Underpriced? Overpriced?
I found the pricing a little bit high but I don't know how intensive the process is... is it something you are going to do it manually for each gif? I see in the 1,2,3 process that you are doing the work but I was on the impression is it automated? If it is a manual job, you need to put the emphasize on it and the price will seem fair. Hope it's help.
Great idea. I actually recommend your gifs to a startup, and they said it's great but we do not have someone looking "good enough" to do the shots... Do you solve that problem with your model now? Will send them your new product.
Cheers!
Hey @Madamdo - First off, thank you for the love on the original idea. You rock. To answer your question, yes, this product already has the models recorded doing the reactions. The brand just needs to choose their gifs/background color and upload their logo. We then add their logo onto the front of the model’s shirt so it looks like they’re wearing their brand’s T-shirt.
I currently have about 45 different reaction gifs to choose from. Will add more over time if people enjoy the product. Possibly even let brands purchase custom actions/gifs.
Very cool!
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@antcas Looooving this free tier pricing feedback/idea!
Maybe the Basic and Professional tiers have more variety of and more customizable gifs as well as a way too incentivize a paid purchase.
I like the subscription model but I don't know if it makes sense until I have a MUCH larger collection to choose from and I'm able to add a bunch of new gifs every month.
Maybe then it's...
Free: Watermarked standard def gif
Single: Purchase 1 non watermarked HD gif for $2.99 each
Package: Purchase 14 non watermarked HD gifs for $14
(eventually) Subscription: $32/month gets you our evergrowing list of gif templates
The other issue is I'm creating the gifs manually (for now) so I'm "in the red" with the cost of fulfilling orders (especially the free ones) until I can throw a tech solution at it. But the initial "loss" is worth it for the free social marketing aspect of the watermark.
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This is pretty awesome Dave!
Thanks, Suhas! I'm actually working on spinning this concept into a product as we speak so others can have their own branded gifs.
Very nice!
Great idea, but already done.
https://placeit.net/t-shirt-video-templates/
I know PlaceIt. Where are there options for people doing reactions in front of a blank background?? The point is the GIF reaction/action. Not just having somebody wear a branded T-shirt in front of a camera dancing on a rooftop.
Awesome!
Amazing idea. Thank you for sharing. It gives me some idea.
Awesome! Let me know if you end up doing the same!
sweet! Too bad nobody wants to see me on video. Where can I get a cute blonde for the gifs? Can I use yours? I’ll mail you the t-shirt. Srs.
Shoot me an email and we can figure something out. Unfortunately, it will be with different talent, though. =P
Cool idea. How do you anticipate to use them? Internal conversations? External?
Mostly external. Twitter conversations. Newsletter. Blog posts (for example, this post: https://postpilot.io/blog/content-marketing-simplistic-chore/), etc.
Gifs have become a humanizing way for brands to communicate with their audience. So we took it a step further and just created our own.
Did you get inspiration for this idea from anything? 👌
We used gifs a lot and saw a lot of the options were branded gifs from GIPHY or TV shows/movies. I figured it wouldn't be that hard to do the same for my own company.
Thanks for the example. Cool!
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ahhhh, I see what you did there.
https://media.giphy.com/media/5YvmVLzrXh9uGh0tpU/giphy.gif
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Riiiiiiight?